Writing BETWEEN Worlds

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The Peace Without

There is a peace, a true peace, that is found only outside of one’s self. I saw this in the eyes of a person tonight. He is a prisoner. I don’t know his name or where he’s from, but he will never leave my mind.

Another man and I go to a prison every month to conduct worship services for the inmates. We usually have around 200 men in the chapel. These are people who have been involved in all manner of criminal activity, but none of that really matters since I’m really no better than any of them. I stand there, leading songs, a sinful and incomplete man, the same as them. But, I have hope. I have peace and I want them to have it, too.

Tonight, nine men humbled themselves and allowed my friend Matthew to bury them under water. These men relinquished their old lives. They assented to execution of a kind that will now allow them to live more abundant lives; lives of hope and peace.

One of the men met us after we had finished worshiping. He shook our hands and said, “My mother passed away last night. I know she’s in Heaven. Now I know I can be there, too.”

You can’t find that kind of peace inside yourself. It’s the kind of peace that truly passes all understanding. I’m grateful to have seen it from the other side of these eyes.